By Linda Mose Meadows
We can all be angels to one another. We can choose to obey the still small stirring within, the little whisper that says, ‘Go. Ask. Reach out. Be an answer to someone’s plea. You have a part to play. Have faith.’ We can decide to risk that He is indeed there, watching, caring, cherishing us as we love and accept love. The world will be a better place for it. And wherever they are, the angels will dance. Author, Joan Wester Anderson
“Not this time!” That’s what my colleague and I declared as we celebrated the news that her husband’s employment contract had been renewed. We danced in our spirits, celebrated with laughter and high-fived the good news as we exhaled a sigh of relief.
I visualized their joy of having sustained employment! No, he wasn’t going to have to pack up his desk, dismantle the bulletin boards, clear the book shelves and disburse his precious materials and supplies. Instead his most recent Human Resources Notification was stamped in bold red letters, Renewed! This time he could “remain put.” His devotion to teaching is evident when we talk. He’d be able to look forward to returning in the fall and remaining in his teaching post. I imagine him not missing a beat while enthusiastically pouring his heart and soul into interactive lesson plans and ultimately providing students with the educational life skill tools needed for this tough life.
Yes, my friends, not this time to mourn another valued teacher lost because of cutbacks. Not this time will we wonder how his family will stay afloat and avoid the creditor’s demands. Not this time will we silently scream and wonder if relief will ever knock on the door again. Not this time feeling as though the bottom has forever dropped out and hope is an overrated cliché’!
We realize that it’s God’s grace that sustains us and keeps us mobile and afloat even when the moment is not so celebratory; when instead the moment requires us to clear out our lockers, place our wonderful family photos in a secure moving crate and turn in our office keys. There’s no need in being deluded that it can’t happen, because folks are losing their jobs daily. When we are in between jobs, it can be extremely difficult to manage our daily responsibilities. For so many, the day has come for us to determine next steps for living without active employment and deciding what do we do?
While we’re figuring out our next steps, I pray that a life line or a lifeboat sails in your direction and docks at your landing with the resources, information and pairs of loving, helping hands that broadly demonstrate, “Not this time will you be left out!”
Linda Mose Meadows is the inspirational author of: The Blessedness of Believing: A Devotional Journey of Life’s Lessons and God’s Promises (Tate Publishing), available online and in bookstores. She’s also a passionate blogger:
http://blessednessofbelieving.blogspot.com/
